I can remember some of them even now.

He used to tell a story of a crabbed old fellow, who was very much annoyed by the boys stealing his apples.

So, after awhile, he got a spring-trap, and set it under the trees, to catch the young rogues.

But the boys got wind of the affair, and the first night he set it, they picked it up, and very quietly put it on his door-step, and then went back to the orchard, and began to bellow as though they were in great distress.
The old man heard the uproar, and started out, in high glee at the idea of catching his tormentors; but he hardly put his foot out of the door, before he began to roar himself, and he was laid up a month with a sore leg." "That was old Zigzag," said the grandmother; "I knew him very well." "Old Zigzag!--what a funny name!" exclaimed Ralph.
"That was n't his name, although he always went by it," added the old lady.

"He was a very odd character, and one of his peculiarities was, that he never walked directly towards any place or object he wished to reach, but went in a 'criss-cross,' zigzag way, like a ship beating and tacking before a head-wind.